Friday, March 17, 2006

"The artistic practice of the Mexican artist collective Tercerunquinto primarily addresses architecture as a means of disjunction of social space.

The site the collective chose for the Project of Public Sculpture in the Urban Periphery of Monterrey (2002–ongoing) is a marginal area called Los Naranjos located in the outskirts of the cities of Monterrey and Escobedo, Mexico. Los Naranjos is mainly composed of illegal settlements whose accumulative growth is based on a spontaneous appropriation of space rather than on its rational compartmentalization.

Following a discussion with the community, Tercerunquinto introduced a permanent forty square meter concrete slab in a context characterized by the instability of its precarious architectural settings and in which property and ownership are negotiated on a daily basis. The deliberate unfolding of the piece as a sculptural element stands as an experiment on how artistic practice and its social environment can affect each other.

The activation of the public sculpture's self-referentiality through its use and appropriation by a collectivity turns it into a mediating platform for the cultural, social, and political interests of its users (the slab has been used for activities such a the distribution of food, blankets, medicine, as well as for religious and political meetings, among other things). This opens the possibility for a continuous transformation and renewal of its functions according to the shifting coordinates of this urban conglomeration."

Project drawings and photos are on display at the Wattis Institute (California College of the Arts) in San Francisco.